What’s holding you
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Hello friends, While vending at Punk Rock Pride last month, something on the pebble dash sidewalk caught my attention. It was a safety pin. I smiled, because safety pins are a hallmark of old school punk. They were a way to keep clothing together even if you didn’t know how to sew. Safety pins were handy for attaching patches and badges to jackets. Best of all? They lacked the respectability of neatly mended clothes. Safety pins could also be seen to represent the fierce way community holds together. Community isn’t neat or tidy. And sometimes holding it together hurts. The same is true for our lives. Our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical states. Sometimes, we need a quick solution, even if it isn’t a long term fix. Sometimes, we must take a stab at making things right. Imperfection is a punk rock ethos. So is DIY. We don’t wait for the perfect moment, or the inviolate solution. We make things up as we go, stitching life together in the most basic way possible. When I want to complicate things, or my childhood perfectionism rears its head, I take a breath and try to remember: sometimes a safety pin is all I need. My motto for work and creativity is “Let it be easy.” And that holds true even when the world is burning and life feels hard. A safety pin says, “I can help you in the moment. Let’s keep going.” A safety pin holds us together until we have enough space to breathe more deeply, to strategize, to cut a new pattern and sew stronger seams. If a safety pin is what you have to offer yourself and others, use it. Don’t give up. Best wishes — Thorn
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, There are a wide variety of humans, but today I’m thinking about two basic types. There are the people who take themselves out of the picture. Write themselves out of the story. Slink to the edges of the frame. Others take center stage at all times. They fill the image, crowding out or overshadowing those around them. These people are the stars of the show, and the only Main Characters. But here’s the thing: no matter what our tendencies or training, we would all do well to...
Hello friends, I wrote this week’s newsletter in advance, because I’m camping with no cell service. It’s so good for my psyche to disconnect from electronics, stare at mountains, and walk along streams for a week. I’m a mind-racer, and this disconnection—like meditation or prayer—helps slow me down inside. The meditation on nature is always a gift to me, even in the small city where I live. For example, on the summer solstice, it was cool enough for me to take a long afternoon walk. I headed...
Hello friends, It’s Pride weekend, and I’m thinking of all the brave people who fought so hard to be allowed to simply exist. And I think of those who are still fighting, myself included. Do we want to fight? No. We’d rather just live our lives, do our work, laugh with friends, raise families, read books, and tend our gardens. Just like immigrants and other people under attack do. “The first Pride was a riot,” it is often said, and whether something is called a riot or an uprising depends on...